Timeline of History

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seizes power in Iran. Almost immediately after arriving in Iran Khomeini started working to remake Iran along his own, religious vision. While in exile he developed an ideal called "Rule of the Jurist," according to which Muslim clergy are called to govern the state for the Muslim faithful.

Khomeini thus calls together an "Assembly of Experts" to draft an Islamic constitution. These experts will create a state that will be led by Khomeini (declared leader of Iran for life) and run by the clergy. Government bureaucracies will be staffed almost entirely by religious students and clerics who can be counted on to strictly follow religious rules and values.

Ayatollah Khomeini turns out to be no less ruthless and violent than the Shah had been. Thousands in Iran will be killed because they do not fit in with or approve of his theocrat state run by the clergy. Both the military and the police services will be purged of possible dissenters and rebuilt upon more narrow, sectarian lines, thus ensuring their loyalty in the crackdowns against dissenters in the population.